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school, I recommended the adoption of the half-time
system, as being peculiarly suitable to a school where
very few of the children had attained their seventh
year. The plan was fairly tried with the sanction of
the Local Committee, but though it answered well
with the children who came in the morning, as more
time could be spared for individual teaching, owing
to the diminution of numbers, it was found that very
few children could be induced to attend in the after-
noon, and that the system was viewed with disfavor
by the parents. It was, therefore, ultimately aban-
doned.

Haven-road—Mr. J. L. Hodgson, assisted by Miss
Dement.—Since the beginning of 1868, when this
made an independent, instead of an auxiliary school,
a marked improvement has taken place; more espe-
cially in the upper classes, the beginners being now
under the charge of an assistant. When the youth
of the scholars is taken into consideration (only 17
scholars out of the 140 who have attended school
during the past year, having reached the twelfth year),
the number of readers recorded as "good" 37, is com-
paratively very considerable, while the proportion of
good writers is also unusually large, when the age of
the scholars, a most important item in any comparative
estimate, is had regard to. A class register, such as
I have recommended above, has been in use here from
the opening of the school, with the best results. It
may not be out of place to remark, that owing to the
roof of the school having a vaulted wooden ceiling,
the verberation of sound is so great as to render it
almost impossible to hear what is being said by the
teachers, though the scholars are by no means dis-
orderly. The same fault in construction has, unfortun-
ately been repeated in the new school at Hampden-
street, with precisely similar results.

Hampden-street—Mr. McIntosh, assistant Mr.
Barnett.—This school, which was only opened at the
beginning of the present year, has attained such a
measure of popularity that it now shows a larger daily
attendance (105) than any other school in the Province.
As the building was not intended to accommodate
more than eighty children, the teachers labor under
great disadvantages, the school being necessarily over-
crowded, and excessively noisy. This does not
perceptibly affect the more silent lessons, such as
writing and arithmetic, both of which are most
successfully taught, but the unavoidable clamor and
confusion tell seriously against the reading, besides
interfering with the teachers' explanations. The large
addition to the building which is to be proceeded
with forthwith, will doubtless enable the teachers to
raise this to the rank of a first-class school in another
year.

St. Mary's Boys—Mr. Richards.—This, though
perhaps the longest-established school in the Pro-
vince, has only been placed under the operation of
the Education Act during the last nine months. As
this is the first instance of a body of ratepayers
availing themselves of the amendment in the Act,
has been only operation last year, the experiment
has been watched with some interest. Hitherto it
may be said to have been attended with complete
success; for the beneficial results have been of a
twofold character. The teacher, whose remuneration
has been made contingent upon the number of
scholars in daily attendance, has been a gain to the
marked increase that has taken place in his school
under the present system, while the friends of
national education can with pleasure to the
large number of children now regularly attending
St. Mary's Schools, who formerly received no school-
ing whatever. This sudden accession of new scholars
has, however, necessitated the entire re-modelling of
the school, which at present suffers somewhat from
the disadvantages that must always attend a large
influx of ill-taught scholars,—not the least of which
is the almost impossibility of properly classifying the
new comers. (A similar difficulty was felt on the
opening of our Provincial schools.) In spite of these
drawbacks, respectable results have been produced
already, the arithmetic being generally good, while
at the last examination the more advanced boys gave
a very intelligent explanation of the subject matter
of the day's lesson, and showed a more average
acquaintance with the outlines of geography.

St. Mary's Girls—Miss Smith.—As this school
had not been open more than six weeks when I last
examined it, scarcely sufficient time had elapsed to
enable me to give a decided opinion as to its merits
A large proportion of the girls had evidently received
very little previous schooling, and it appeared to me
that much preliminary training would be required
before the school could attain to the standard of the
other town schools. The teacher, though inexpe-
rienced, struck me as being painstaking and intelli-
gent.

Hillside—Mr. Danvers.—The education statistics
for the past year show, as usual, an exceptionally
high standard of attainment in this school, but it
would be unfair to conceal the fact that the attend-
ance has fallen off lately to a considerable extent,
and that the majority of the advanced scholars have
left the school. At my last examination, only 14
children, most of whom were very young, were
present (little more than half the number present on
a similar occasion in June, 1867.) It would be
foreign to the objects of a report of this kind to enter
into the local causes that have brought about this
deplorable result, more especially when no falling off
in the neighboring population, and no want of
capacity on the part of the teacher, can be alleged in
explanation. I can only record, with regret, the
change for the worse in what I have for many years
looked upon as one of the most promising of our
schools.

Clifton Terrace—Mr. Gilbert.—This school, which
for a long time remained stationary, if it did not
actually lose ground, has been steadily improving of
late, both in the number of scholars, and in the
regularity of their attendance, which, during the
March quarter, was as high as 78 per cent. A cor-
responding advance has been made in learning, both
reading and writing being of more than average
merit. In arithmetic, however, a general backward-
ness is still noticeable. The children are remarkably
orderly.

Stoke—Mr. and Mrs. Smith.—This year's returns
show a considerable falling off in the number of good
readers, for which I am unable to account satisfac-
torily, as the numbers and age of the scholars corres-
pond pretty accurately with those given last year,
and the daily average attendance for the last three
quarters of this year, 74 per cent, is considerably
higher than that of the majority of our schools. In
other respects, the present returns contrast not un-
favorably with those of last year, and are sufficient
to show that Stoke holds a fair position among our
country schools.

Richmond Boys—Mr. Harrington.—The present
master has been only recently appointed to Richmond,
but he has already effected a perceptible improve-
ment in the tone and discipline of his school. The
number of scholars also appears to be on the increase,
though a daily attendance of 39 still falls short of
what might be expected in a comparatively populous
neighborhood. As on former occasions, I found the
arithmetic and grammar of the first class exception-
ally good, but the reading was indifferent through-
out, and the writing with a few exceptions, slovenly.